And while the city consistently ranks as one of the best places to live in the country thanks in part to a strong economy and tons of entertainment, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in Memphis. Some neighborhoods aren’t as great as others.

So the question arises, which Memphis neighborhoods are the worst, and which are the best?

Today, we’ll use science and data to determine which Memphis hoods need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Memphis area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the neighborhoods to be amazing, although Windyke-Southwind ranks way above the rest.

We examined 13 of Memphis’s neighborhoods to find out the worst places to live. These places don’t quite measure up to Memphis’s reputation.

How we determined the worst Memphis hoods

To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what places have the least amount of those things. We threw the following criteria into this analysis in order to get the best, most complete results possible. We used this set of criteria for each neighborhood in Memphis:

High unemployment (Less jobs)

Low median income (Less pay)

Low population density (No things to do)

Low home values (No one’s willing to pay to live here)

High crime (Estimated)

Then, we ranked each neighborhood in Memphis for each of these criteria from worst to best.

Next, we averaged the individual rankings for each criteria into a ‘Worst Score’.

The neighborhood with the lowest ‘Worst Score’ ranks as the worst neighborhood of Memphis.

Read on below to learn more about these terrible places around Memphis to live. Or skip to the end to see the list of all 13 neighborhoods ranked from worst to best.

This list is a scientific analysis based on real data and is completely unbiased. Hold on to your pants.

1. Shelby Forest-Frayser

Population: 35,245Median Income: $26,850Median Home Value: $59,187

2. Parkway Village-Oakhaven

Population: 41,359Median Income: $33,334Median Home Value: $66,275

3. Downtown

Population: 48,816Median Income: $25,584Median Home Value: $65,883

4. White Haven-Coro Lake

Population: 90,284Median Income: $34,756Median Home Value: $74,687

5. Berclair-Highland Heights

Population: 32,551Median Income: $29,284Median Home Value: $56,197

The ‘hoods around Memphis that are really hoods

Well there you have it — the worst of the neighborhoods in Memphis with Shelby Forest-Frayser landing at the bottom of the pack.

As we mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Memphis aren’t all bad. Windyke-Southwind takes the cake as the best place to live in Memphis.